Jenny Saville

Plan
1993, oil on Canvas,
274.5 x 213.5cm
The Saatchi Collection, London

Closed Contact #10
1996

Jenny Saville is my first female artist I am going to look at. She was born in Cambridge, England, in 1970. She is a contemporary British painter and one of the Young British Artists (YBAs). She is known for her monumental images of obese women, usually using herself as the model.

She gained her degree at Glasgow School of Art and was then awarded a six month scholarship to the University of Cincinnati, where she says that she saw "Lots of big women. Big white flesh in shorts and T-shirts. It was good to see because they had the physicality that I was interested in." She studied at the Slade School Of Art 1992-1993. At the end of her postgraduate education at the Slade, the leading British art collector Charles Saatchi purchased her entire senior show and commissioned works for another two years. In 1994 she spent many hours observing plastic surgery operations in New York in 1994. Today, Saville works and lives in London and is a tutor of figure painting at the Slade School of Art.

Saville is unique amongst the YBAs for her dedication to the "traditional" art of oil painting. Her painterly style has been compared to that of Lucian Freud and Rubens. Her paintings are usually much larger than life size. They are strongly pigmented and give a highly sensual impression of the surface of the skin as well as the mass of the body. She sometimes adds marks onto the body, such as white "target" rings. Since her debut in 1992, her focus has remained on the body.

Her self-portraits are different from any other artists’ due to the obvious fact that she paints her body not her face. This will hopefully, give me a different perspective on artists developing their styles over time.

The two pieces I have picked were both painted within a time gap of 3 years. Therefore, it is harder to notice a significant difference. However, having said that there are differences which stand out. The first one shows her body and face looking down onto the viewer; and the second shows her body squashed against glass above the viewer. This shows she is experimenting with different angles and perspectives. She is testing out which angles create the most impact and impression.

Jenny Saville is an artist who is still experimenting with positions; light sources; and perspectives. Therefore, I do not believe Saville has established her style beyond knowing what her subject matter is; distorting her body. She is still evolving as an artist.